Digital television broadcasts are well known in the art. Common digital video service networks which provide digital television broadcasts to viewers include digital cable TV, digital satellite TV, video-on-demand, and terrestrial digital TV broadcasting systems. In each of these services a service operator broadcasts information to a multitude of end users, or viewers, in the form of digital television signals provided over a transmission channel.
Digital television signals are generally broadcast in the MPEG-2 format. MPEG-2 is a well known standard which was adopted on Nov. 4, 1994 by the ISO (International Organization for Standards) Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) for audio/video digital signal compression, configuration and transmission. The MPEG-2 Standard allows for consistent and uniform digital video signal sampling, coding, transmission and reception throughout the world and is very well known in the art.
Through the known systems designed according to the MPEG-2 Standard (which is also known as International Standard ISO/IEC 13818-1), the packetizing, multiplexing, and sending of coded bit streams of multiple programs may be accomplished. Using this standard signal configuration, multiple programs, along with audio and video overlays may be transmitted by a service operator and received by an end user over a specific transmission channel. Details of MPEG-2 Systems can be also found in the textbook, Digital Video: An Introduction to MPEG-2, Barry G. Haskell and et. al., Champman and Hall, New York, N.Y., USA, 1997.
Since the adoption of the MPEG-2 Standard, service networks have proliferated around the world which networks provide digital television programming to end users. Each of these digital television broadcast services provide an MPEG-2 signal to end users over the transmission channel discussed above.
Within the broadcast MPEG-2 signal there are a multitude of modulated channels and also a multitude of Programs. Generally, the viewer tunes to, or selects, a channel for viewing and watches the Program being broadcast within that channel. The viewer selects that channel from pre-published hard copy guides distributed throughout the broadcast region.
Guides are also transmitted over within the broadcast MPEG-2 signal. Those broadcast guides may have a channel designation or they may be an overlaid system guide which the viewer can download from the digital television service network. These guides generally show the program title, the program time, and perhaps a short “blurb” regarding the programs within the guide. However, oftentimes there is no “blurb” or the pre-written “blurb” is insufficient for the viewer to determine if the program is desirable.
Furthermore, the information is generally written by the broadcaster which prevents the program producer from actively marketing their program or movie to the viewer in the most desirable manner possible. It should be noted that the producer's revenues are generally based upon the amount of views or viewers who watch the program.
In some digital television broadcast networks, there is a channel dedicated to trailers for upcoming or currently broadcasting programs which allow the viewer to watch the trailers created by the producer. However, if the viewer wants to watch one of those programs, the viewer must then change to the guide and select the times and other information for the program.
Currently, within the digital networks on the market today, if the viewer desires to watch a program, they can select it from the guide for display or reserve it for future display. When they later watch the program, they may realize that they had reserved the wrong program. None of the systems currently known, allow the viewer to actually understand which Program they are selecting for future viewing, when they are selecting the program, until they watch the program later.